Page 4 of The Note
And read it.
And refolded it.
And put it carefully in the back pocket of my pants, because I knew I was gonna treasure that thing for the rest of my goddamn life.
I took one giant step toward Alex, who looked up at me in surprise…
And I kissed the ever-living shit out of him.
It shocked him — as in, his hands flailed and he made a strangledmmphsound and it took a second for him to wrap his arms around me and get into it, though he definitely,definitelygot into it — but I figured that was okay since he’d shocked the shit out of me, too.
The note he’d given me wasn’t a love letter, exactly. It was something better. A shaft of sunlight to my sad, angry little teenaged heart.
I’m sorry, it said. I suck at actually talking about important shit. Then again, so do you, so maybe a note will work.
You’re not alone, Tyler.
I see you. You’re fighting your feelings like they make you weak. You’re pushing down your own needs. You try to live for everyone else. It’s making you miserable.
So stop, dumbass.
It’s okay to get angry. To get loud. To be bold.
Life’s not like calculus. There’s more than one right answer.
Don’t think you need to achieve something to be worthy of love, or that an Ivy League will make you special, because you’re already worthy. You’re already special.
You’re already loved.
You always have been.
And I promise, you always will be.
Alex and I broke apart a second later, and I grinned. “Wow.”
“No shit, wow.” Alex bit his lip but couldn’t hide his wide grin. “Where’ve you been hidingthat?”
“Oh, you know. I have my secrets. I’m fuckingspecialand all.”
Alex laughed and shook his head like he’d never really seen me before. “Yeah. You sure are.”
I heard footsteps in the hallway and instinctively took a step away from Alex, clearing my throat. Gus walked in and glanced between the two of us silently. I found it hard to look him in the eye.
“So. You’re going home?” he said finally, shoving his hands in his pockets.
“Yep.”
Gus nodded. “Listen. I’m sorry our tutoring got so… uh…rowdy.”
I snorted and then Ididlift my gaze to his. “Rowdy. That’s one way to put it.”
“Was it cathartic, at least?”
I blinked at him. It had been. Like releasing steam.
“Cathartic or not, don’t try it again,” Alex said, closing the distance between us. He shocked the hell out of me for the billionth time that day by putting his hand on my lower back, right in front of his brother. Happy tingles shot up and down my spine. “You can leavemy boy Tyleralone.”
Gus stared at us blankly, his lips parted in surprise. “You…Well. This is sudden.”
